That depends a lot on what you are wanting to get. Do you want to buy something? I would suggest Way of the Ronin for Iron Dynasty.

But if you want to mine other RPG sources for ideas, Sengoku for Fuzion has some good materials. I have thought about mining ideas from the Legend of the 5 Rings or whatever that is called. What little I have seen from it looks to be interesting._________________Just about every kid today wants to be Batman, Spiderman, or Superman. Maybe if we were better parents they would not want to become orphans.

I'll -1 Iron Dynasty, it had great production values but the content really left me disappointed.

I have never used the actual setting, but I do like the equipment and edges. Those can be used in other settings and are already statted for Savage Worlds._________________Just about every kid today wants to be Batman, Spiderman, or Superman. Maybe if we were better parents they would not want to become orphans.

I'll -1 Iron Dynasty, it had great production values but the content really left me disappointed.

What particular content are you referring to? If its historical background, adventures, plot point campaign I'd agree it's somewhat lacking, but everything else IMO is first rate. Plot point campaign is the biggest weakness, because all that's included are a number of bulletted outlines for such campaigns as opposed to complete, linked adventures. Aside from that though; the edges, hindrances, arcane backgrounds, corrupted NPC creator, beast generator and some of the specialized systems such as reputation and dueling are terrific. The martial arts and sword combat edges alone are IMO pretty much worth the price of the book. I've run a campaign in it for months and it certainly has captured the flavor of mythical fantasy set in Feudal Japan.

I'll -1 Iron Dynasty, it had great production values but the content really left me disappointed.

What particular content are you referring to? If its historical background, adventures, plot point campaign I'd agree it's somewhat lacking, but everything else IMO is first rate. Plot point campaign is the biggest weakness, because all that's included are a number of bulletted outlines for such campaigns as opposed to complete, linked adventures. Aside from that though; the edges, hindrances, arcane backgrounds, corrupted NPC creator, beast generator and some of the specialized systems such as reputation and dueling are terrific. The martial arts and sword combat edges alone are IMO pretty much worth the price of the book. I've run a campaign in it for months and it certainly has captured the flavor of mythical fantasy set in Feudal Japan.

I'll second this. The setting information was lacking but I used a lot of the Edges and other rules in my own oriental fantasy setting. Everything works very well and easily incorporates into Savage Worlds.

And if you want to know more about the Iron Dynasty setting then the Guidebooks and Kesshi Tales and other supplements are excellent sources of additional information._________________"Got a problem? I've got the solution: Rocket Launcher."
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I have never used the actual setting, but I do like the equipment and edges. Those can be used in other settings and are already statted for Savage Worlds.

I personally found the Edges quite broken, specifically the Elemental ones that allowed casters to throw Fire Bolts for 3d6+1d4, or Earthen Smite a weapon for +4+1d4. This is something that came out from actual play rather than just reading.

kronovan wrote:

What particular content are you referring to? If its historical background, adventures, plot point campaign I'd agree it's somewhat lacking, but everything else IMO is first rate. Plot point campaign is the biggest weakness, because all that's included are a number of bulletted outlines for such campaigns as opposed to complete, linked adventures. Aside from that though; the edges, hindrances, arcane backgrounds, corrupted NPC creator, beast generator and some of the specialized systems such as reputation and dueling are terrific. The martial arts and sword combat edges alone are IMO pretty much worth the price of the book. I've run a campaign in it for months and it certainly has captured the flavor of mythical fantasy set in Feudal Japan.

My biggest disappointment was the setting, as I found it quite a mess full of contradictions, such as character names changing. It also really underperformed with the promised mecha (kikai?).

I also found the dueling rules to not actually be rules about dueling at all, but rather poorly written social customs on when and how you can challenge or deny a duel. It was really quite complicated, and could have been presented better.

ValhallaGH wrote:

And if you want to know more about the Iron Dynasty setting then the Guidebooks and Kesshi Tales and other supplements are excellent sources of additional information.

I actually picked up one of the Guidebooks, hoping it would give me some more content to work the setting with. Even though it was only like two or three dollars, I was even disappointed with that as a third of the text seemed to just be copy-pasted from the core book, another third was rather pointless stats for deer and other animals (though I liked the idea of purple hippos), with only the remaining third being new and useful content*.

* - the term "third" is only being used as a rough measure taken from memory of what the page count seemed to be devoted to.

My biggest disappointment was the setting, as I found it quite a mess full of contradictions, such as character names changing. It also really underperformed with the promised mecha (kikai?).

No argument there, as I said above I think the historical background could have been better written and with what little there is on the Kikai, they could have been left out. I do think the background for the provinces was decent and done better than a number of the SW settings I own.

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I also found the dueling rules to not actually be rules about dueling at all, but rather poorly written social customs on when and how you can challenge or deny a duel. It was really quite complicated, and could have been presented better.

True, but the social customs aspect is what I like about it and I think it aligns the setting very nicely with the flavor of the classic Samurai movie. As well, that it links/influences reputation, which in turn effects social play mechanics means as a GM you can get a lot of mileage out of the those in terms of social role-playing. I agree it could have been better written (have the same criticism for Extended Trait Checks) but with a minor bit of tweaking it and reputation can really enhance a campaign.

No argument there, as I said above I think the historical background could have been better written and with what little there is on the Kikai, they could have been left out. I do think the background for the provinces was decent and done better than a number of the SW settings I own.

Well I don't mind it being un-historic, as it really is meant as a fantasy setting. And you are right, the product should be congratulated on covering all the provinces, though I kinda wish they gave some more details in a summation. If I recall correctly, I do not believe it is normally stated who runs a specific province, or what kind of rumors one can find in it. But it was a long time ago, so I may be remembering incorrectly.

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True, but the social customs aspect is what I like about it and I think it aligns the setting very nicely with the flavor of the classic Samurai movie. As well, that it links/influences reputation, which in turn effects social play mechanics means as a GM you can get a lot of mileage out of the those in terms of social role-playing. I agree it could have been better written (have the same criticism for Extended Trait Checks) but with a minor bit of tweaking it and reputation can really enhance a campaign.

Oh, I have no problem that the rules are limited to social customs, I just felt they could of been explained better, and it might have benefited with some tables. I also don't think the product should advertise "duel rules" as it is rather misleading, which led to my disappointment.

No argument there, as I said above I think the historical background could have been better written and with what little there is on the Kikai, they could have been left out. I do think the background for the provinces was decent and done better than a number of the SW settings I own.

Well I don't mind it being un-historic, as it really is meant as a fantasy setting.

I was referring to the intro history for the mythical setting of Konoya. I found it a bit too brief and somewhat disjointed, to the point where I had to read through it a few times. I think overall, the background intro could have been written better and should have been a bit longer.

I was referring to the intro history for the mythical setting of Konoya. I found it a bit too brief and somewhat disjointed, to the point where I had to read through it a few times. I think overall, the background intro could have been written better and should have been a bit longer.

Ah, I see. I personally thought it was long enough, but I agree that it felt disjointed.

It's really too bad that the setting material for Iron Dynasty wasn't put together a little better. I thought the rules really managed to add a fantasy sengoku jidai feeling to SW. Maybe they did it on purpose to force everyone to buy their region guides.

well if your looking for story content you can salvage from other games but if its stats you want perhaps deadlands reloaded the flood? it expands on the chi mastery from the original reloaded players manual.
it won't work story wise because... well its sorta like being in china town of a setting that if you go to the more teched up places you can pretend your in world war 1 with Vietnam style helicopter battles thrown in for kicks and giggles (boy was that a fun if short part of our campaign.)